Your wireless carrier is gouging you and we have the numbers to prove it

People hate their wireless carriers. This isn’t a news flash. Yet we put up with them anyway. Alongside death. taxes, and the Star Wars prequels, wireless carriers are something we must accept. While some are trying to repent their ways, carriers in America continue to anger their customers. But if you look at wireless companies in other countries, you start to realize that something is very wrong here. U.S. carriers are charging up to twice as much as many European and Asian providers, all while exerting a huge amount of control over what phones we can and can’t use on their networks.

AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon; listen up. We know just how much you’ve been screwing us over, and it’s about time you change your ways.

U.S. carrier plans are ridiculously expensive, and closed minded

The math doesn’t add up. It shouldn’t cost more than $100 a month to own a smartphone, and it shouldn’t cost $60 a month for a basic phone either. Phone plans are outrageously priced in the United States. Carrier’s outside our borders charge a fraction of the price for service. It’s time to drop prices, offer more variety, and stop charging a fortune for features like data and messaging.

The price for wireless service anywhere varies greatly due to a number of reasons, but there is a consistent theme: most of them are cheaper. Let’s start with something simple: a smartphone plan with a few hundred minutes, a few gigabytes of data, and unlimited messaging. This is a wireless plan that’s pretty typical with all the necessities covered whether you love your iPhone or your Galaxy S3.

If you’re in America, you can choose between any of the Big Four and pay anywhere from $80 a month (T-Mobile and Sprint) to $100 a month (AT&T and Verizon) depending on your carrier of preference and the number of minutes you want. Verizon is the most expensive, and is even forcing users into new “Share Everything” plans that force them to pay for unlimited minutes and texts, but limit them greatly with high-priced data that’s sold by the gigabyte.

Price of basic smartphone plans in the United States

Carrier

Price

Data

Minutes/Texts

Verizon

$100

2GB

Unlimited / Unlimited

AT&T

$95

1GB

Unlimited / Unlimited

Sprint

$80

Unlimited

450min (Unlimited to Mobile) / Unlimited

T-Mobile

$70

Unlimited

Unlimited / Unlimited

In the UK, there are fewer carriers, but their prices are fairer. Vodafone, Orange, and Everything & Everywhere (EE) – a collaboration between Orange and T-Mobile – dominate the cellular scene there. All three of the carriers charge less for the same (or better) service from each of the four U.S. carriers, ranging from $62 a month (Orange) to $70 a month (E&E) to $71 a month (Vodafone). E&E offers offer a $70 a month plan which includes unlimited minutes, unlimited texts, and 3GB of data; AT&T and Verizon both charge about $40 a month more for that level of service, and T-Mobile charges about $20 more.

In other parts of Europe, prices are cheaper, too. Orange in France sells a wireless plan with unlimited minutes, unlimited texts, and 2GB of data for $64 a month. Orange is no small fry, actually serving nearly as many customers as Verizon and AT&T combined. A major carrier in Spain, Telefónica, also offers a fairly reasonable plan with 500MB of high speed data, unlimited texting, and 500 minutes for about $65 a month. One of the few countries in Europe with pricing even close to America is Germany, where pricing is steadily close to AT&T and Verizon. Despite this, the remainder of Europe remains competitively priced, and between $20 and $50 a month cheaper, depending on the plan.

But let’s not forget about Hong Kong and Japan. In Hong Kong, Hutchinson (also known as ‘Three’) will give you an 5GB high speed wireless plan with plenty of minutes for just $59 a month. A similar deal goes for Softbank in Japan, which will set you back just $55 for unlimited data, SMS, and free calling to Softbank other users between 1AM and 9PM. While Japan’s pricing structure is much more à la carte, it still doesn’t even come close to American wireless plans, unless you’re making some seriously long calls.

Price of basic smartphone plans around the world

Carrier

Price

Data

Minutes / Texts

Orange (UK)

$54

1GB

Unlimited / Unlimited

Orange (UK)

$62

3GB

600min / Unlimited

Everything & Everywhere (UK)

$62

1GB

Unlimited / Unlimited

Everything & Everywhere (UK)

$70

3GB

Unlimited / Unlimited

Vodafone (UK)

$56

1GB

Unlimited / Unlimited

Vodafone (UK)

$71

2GB

Unlimited / Unlimited

Telefonica (Spain)

$65

500MB (Unlimited)

500min / Unlimited

Telefonica (Spain)

$77

2GB (Unlimited)

500min / Unlimited

Deutsche Telekom (Germany)

$83

2GB (Unlimited)

120min (Unlimited in network) / Unlimited

Orange (France)

$64

2GB

Unlimited/Unlimited

Orange (France)

$77

3GB

Unlimited/Unlimited

Softbank (Japan)

$55

7GB (Unlimited)

$.22 per minute (Unlimited in network) / Unlimited

Hutchinson (Hong Kong)

$59

5GB (Unlimited)

2000min / Unlimited

*Prices converted using Google on 3-22-2013

While we’re just talking about a simple smartphone plan here, the fact remains just about any plan you suggest will cost significantly less in Europe, the UK, Hong Kong, or Japan. For example, in the UK with Orange you can choose to have a bare minimum plan and pay the bare minimum price – about $30 a month – for 100 minutes, 50 texts, and 100MB of data. Hutchinson in Hong Kong will offer you a voice-only plan with 550 minutes for just $8 a month. No matter how you frame it, in almost any case the international carriers are offering not only cheaper plans, but plans with more variety in minutes, data amounts, and other important factors. Why don’t American carriers do the same?

2-year contracts are terrible

What could you do in two years? While most of us can’t see two weeks ahead, let alone two years, it seems to have become this sort of magic number for American carriers to choose with new plans, and it’s plain silly.

A 2-year contract makes no sense for you and me. They only make sense to carriers, who rake in big bucks by locking customers in for so long. Have you ever wondered why there are only limited options for customers who want to pay month to month, or why carriers don’t offer a 1-year contract, even if it cost more?

Across the Atlantic, many of the biggest mobile operators in Europe and the UK either offer 1-year contracts, 1.5 year contracts, or offer an incentive of some kind to go for the 2-year lock-in. Vodafone lets you choose 1-year contracts when building your plan. If you buy a plan with more data, Orange will drop your contract period by a year. E&E, the UK’s biggest mobile operator is also cool with one-year contracts. Even Deutsche Telekom, parent of T-Mobile USA, offers a 10 percent discount when you go for a 2-year contract.

Carriers throughout Europe are also open to different contract lengths, including Orange France, carriers in Hong Kong, and beyond. In the U.S. you can either get a 2-year contract or pay month to month, but everywhere else carriers offer options ranging from 1 to 2 years in length. Many American carriers used to offer 1 year contracts, but that prospect dried up fast a few years ago. Worse, many month-to-month plans are only usable with subpar devices or force other odd limitations. The only one close to offering a variety in contract length is T-Mobile and its Value Plan, which lets you run without a contract after 20 months, but we have complaints about that plan too. We’ll explain later.